The Ana Mendieta I Knew
Liliana Porter, Frieze
June 2026
Many texts on the artist Ana Mendieta focus on her more violent self-portraits and performances about sexual and domestic abuse, and then ultimately her tragic death in 1985. They could not be more different from the intimate account recalled here by Liliana Porter, a fellow artist and close friend of Mendieta’s. In Porter’s recollection, Mendieta arrives already charged: dazzling, mischievous, watchful, moving through rooms with a presence that seemed to register everything at once. As Porter writes: ‘I was deeply drawn to her […] fearless daring’, and ‘admired her resilience and resolve.’ […]